Constructing rights and duties towards climate change : citizenship and governance in mediated discourses around the world

Abstract

While its causation is highly differentiated across the globe and across social groups, the enhanced greenhouse effect is already having worldwide impacts ranging from temperature increase to extreme weather events. This raises key questions of responsibility for governments, business and individuals. In this context, the definition of rights and duties in connection to greenhouse gas emissions has become the subject of a discursive battle, which has generated divides between industrialized and developing economies, and within each of these groups of countries. This paper offers a contribution to understanding these matters with an exploratory analysis of a sample of political and media discourses from the USA and China. The following questions are addressed in the paper: How are the positions of these countries’ governments legitimated? How are their citizens’ economic, political and social rights and duties in relation to climate change constructed? How are the governments and citizens of other countries represented?